History

This
history of this breed is also fascinating. Below was cut and pasted
from the American British White Park Association's website
(www.whitecattle.org).

The Roman Legions occupied England in B.C. and stayed there for 400
years. During this time both the Romans and the native Britons
maintained white cattle for sacrificial purposes.

Rome withdrew from the island in 407 AD, tribal
warfare and chaos followed the departure of the legions and continued
until 1066. During this period the white cattle escaped into the
wilderness and reverted to a wild condition. For 700 years they were
regarded as wild game animals and were hunted as such. During this 700
years “natural selection” and “survival of the fittest controlled the
existence of White cattle. Mother nature decided which animal lived and
which one died and which one reproduced.

The cattle that survived in each generation were
superior - nature killed the others, she does not compromise. The basic
qualities of hardiness, livability, disease resistance, fertility and
feed efficiency enabled a part of each generation to survive and
reproduce themselves. These basic traits of functional efficiency became
more bred-in and more firmly established with each succeeding
generation.

In 1066 England was conquered and occupied by the
Normans. Various kings during the 12th and 13th centuries awarded large
land grants to the church and to members of their court. Such grants or
estates were “emparked”, enclosed by high fences or walls of stone. This
was done to exclude poacher (the previous owners who had been
dispossessed) and to confine and control as many game animals as
possible inside the “Parks”. White cattle were so “emparked” along with
the deer and other game animals.

For
another 800 years the Park cattle, inside the parks, existed just as
they did before emparkment. No effort was made to interfere with
nature’s process. The cattle lived and progressed on their own merit -
or they died and did not reproduce. The surplus was hunted and killed
each year. They gradually became prized possessions and status symbols
and were bequeathed to the owners’ descendants just as were the estates,
the family jewels, the mink coats, the skeletons in the closets and
other traditional items. By mutual agreement, the few owners of Park
cattle retained them closely and their sale and wider distribution was
prevented! For about 700 years, until 1800, the cattle lived and
propagated inside the “Parks” just as they had for the preceding 1000
years in the wilderness. When domestication and selective breeding
started, the cattle were the result of 1500 years of natural selection.
Traits of survival, hardiness, fertility, disease resistance, and the
ability to live were bred-in and made stronger each generation. The weak
and marginal animals did not survive.

In 1919 the first British White Park Registry
Association was formed. In 1940, one bull and five cows were sent to the
United States as seedstock in event of a Nazi invasion of England. In
about 1960 all Park cattle in the custody of the U.S Government were
sold to the public.

A very few Park cattle had been brought to this
country before this date. By whom and when is not fully known. Such
cattle, along with those sold by the U.S. Government, are the of all
Park cattle in this country. There have been very recent imports of a
few cattle.

A group of breeders formed the White Park Cattle
Association of America in 1975. In the late 80’s, probably 1987 or 1988,
some members broke away from the WPCAA and formed the British White
Cattle Association of America. In 1999 the WPCAA and many breeders of
the BWCAA reunited to form the American British White Park Association.

It is the long period of natural development, as a
known and specific breed, that has given the White cattle their genetic
bred-in superiority of functional efficiency.